Field of the invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to gloves and, more particularly, to supported gloves having an elastomeric, polymeric, or latex coating and raised elastomeric, polymeric, or latex features disposed on the coating, and a method of making the gloves.
Description of the Related Art
Gloves are utilized in many fields for protecting workers, such as medical, industrial, household, and others. In service, gloves are subjected to extensive wear from cuts, punctures, and abrasions, creating a need for durability. Furthermore, other in-service requirements include enhanced grip-ability, stretch-ability, and flexibility.
Some gloves include a fabric liner that is dipped into a rubber polymer (e.g., natural rubber latex, synthetic rubber latex, and the like) to form a coating that covers at least a portion of the fabric liner. However, such gloves do not offer adequate grip properties. Past attempts to impart better grip properties involved the use of caustic chemicals and many required many processing steps.
Furthermore, some gloves have a foamed polymeric coating to impart flexibility and other comfort-related properties. The foamed polymeric coating may be open-celled or closed-celled. Closed-celled foamed coatings maintain impervious properties, protecting against germs, viruses, and microbes, but typically have poor grip properties and are not quite as flexible as open-celled foamed coatings. Open-celled foamed coatings absorb moisture and oils better for enhanced grip, but do not adequately protect against germs, viruses, and microbes. Moreover, gloves having open-celled foamed coatings are not particularly abrasion resistant, leading to breaches during use and particularly during extended use.
Therefore, supported gloves offering enhanced grip properties and methods for producing supported gloves having enhanced grip properties represent advances in the art.